In order what needs to be done to create a healthier and better performing set of transportation arrangements, World Streets make a consistent distinction between what we call “old mobility” and “new mobility.” The difference between the two is quite simple. And substantial.

Old mobility was the form of transportation policy, practice and thinking that took its full shape and momentum starting in the mid twentieth century, at a time when we all lived in a universe that was, or at least seemed to be, boundless and free of constraints. It served us well in many ways at the time, albeit with exceptions, though we were blind to most of them most of the time. It was a very different world back them. But that world is over. And it will never come back.

The planet was enormous, the spaces great and open, energy abundant and cheap, resources endless. The “environment” was not a consideration, “climate” was the weather, technology was able to come up with a constant stream of solutions, builders were able to solve the problems that arose from bottlenecks by endlessly expanding capacity at the trouble points, and fast growth and the thrill of continuing innovations masked much of what was not all that good.

Fifty things that were wrong with Old Mobility

Old Mobility policy and practice does not work well in the realities that constitute the 21st century, because it is . . .

Destructive

Inefficient

Unfair

Murderous

Unhealthy

Noisy

Profligate

Unneighborly

Socially destructive

Unimaginative

Unquestioning

Inertial

Based on essentially closed system thinking (i.e., looking at “transport” in isolation from the rest)

Hierarchical

Top-down

Centralized

Statistics based (i.e., bound by the past)

Bounded

Reductive

End-state solution oriented

Authoritarian

Supply oriented

Oriented to maximizing vehicle throughput and speeds

Expert based

Engineering-based (i.e., working “within the box”, albeit often with high technical competence)

But this does not reflect the priorities and the reality of transport, our needs, and our potential in the 21st century, and above all in our cities which are increasingly poorly served by not only our present mobility arrangements; but also the thinking and values that underlie them. Our rural areas are likewise suffering and without a coherent game plan. We now live in an entirely different kind of universe, and the constraints which were never felt before, or ignored, are now emerging as the fundamental building blocks for transportation policy and practice in this new century.

It’s time for a change. And the change has to start with us. You see, WE are the problem.

But we can also be part of the solution. Let’s see what it could like like if we started wiht the theme of equity.